


greyhounds in the slips, straining upon the start

by mahadevi



Category: Persona 3, Persona 4, Persona 5
Genre: Akechi Goro Lives, Akechi Goro Redemption, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Murder Baby In Inaba, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Persona 5: The Royal Spoilers, Specifically for all of the new third semester content, Well - Freeform, akeshu is mostly based on akechi's feelings and not actually acted out in canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-05-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:02:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23880499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mahadevi/pseuds/mahadevi
Summary: Inaba refuses to stay peaceful, no matter how many years may pass. Akechi Goro refuses to stay dead, no matter how hard he tries. The Investigation Team refuses to stay out of other people's business, no matter how politely you may ask. And Akechi has askedverypolitely.Or; Akechi Goro gets strong-armed into a proper redemption arc and accidentally gets adopted by the boonies' biggest freakshow.
Relationships: Akechi Goro & The Investigation Team, Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist, Amagi Yukiko/Satonaka Chie, Hanamura Yosuke/Narukami Yu, Kujikawa Rise/Shirogane Naoto/Tatsumi Kanji
Comments: 42
Kudos: 278
Collections: Quality Persona Fics





	1. Kanji Tatsumi Is Alone On Christmas Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> couple opening things:  
> 1\. p5r feels very modern so I made it take place in the 2019/2020 school year, but also there's a couple story reasons as well
> 
> 2\. naoto's gender is something I'm projecting (what a surprise) where she feels comfortable being identified as a woman by family, close friends, and trusted people, but prefers masculine pronouns with everyone else. it's like a professional vs personal boundary, and also largely about Not being an obtainable object for men
> 
> 3\. in terms of game mechanics, if the p5 gang is about level 76-80 at the endgame, then the p4 gang is like level 160. they've had seven years of experience over the others and im assuming that even after p4 they were reserve operatives and have had plenty of time to get stronger
> 
> hope u enjoy!!

The winter season settles into Kanji’s bones, sharp and unforgiving and too damn cold, the same way Inaba’s summer rain feels at the crack of dawn. Inaba’s infamous for it’s ruthless winters, the place is synonymous with the rough and tumble mountainous wilds, it’s a basic constant that Kanji’s has known for years. But it still catches him off guard, even after all this time.

“Mother _fucker—“_ he hisses, too-numb fingers fumbling the needle. He hunches himself down further, brings it closer to his eyes, and tries again. God, Rise would kick the _shit_ out of him for this, she’s always on his case about his posture and his eyesight. She’s always so loud about it too, ridiculous whines and pouts and huffs that grate on his ears until he chases her away with a roar. 

He finds himself missing her nagging though, as the hours drag on and the flower petals are painstakingly embroidered onto the fabric. The new years yukata demand always hits hard, but it’s usually bearable with his girls at his side. They keep him fed and watered and bathed, ground him in reality when he loses his head in stitches and patterns and silk. But Rise’s promoting her song in Korea and Naoto’s been flown out to deal with the absolute shitshow in Tokyo and they’ve left Kanji alone, on Christmas, in Inaba, with nothing but a never-ending list of rush orders for the holiday next week.

If they had been there, Rise would’ve pulled him to bed when the clock struck twelve. If they had been there, Naoto would’ve turned off his phone and left it charging in the craft room. They would’ve berated him for working so hard on Christmas day of all days. They would’ve discussed what to make on New Year’s morning and needled each other about their wishes and bickered and bantered until the early hours of morning. If they had been there, Kanji would’ve fallen asleep, his girls by his side, and slept soundly until morning.

Instead, he wakes up to a phone call from Teddie.

“There are people in the TV.” Teddie squeals, not even waiting for a hello. It takes Kanji a moment to register the words, but he's bolting upright, cracking his back and nearly knocking everything off his desk. “Kanji—“

“The _fuck?”_ He spits, voice rough from the few hours of sleep he’s managed. “Wha—“

“I don’t know! It’s none of us because I _know_ what you guys feel like in the TV and it’s nothing like you guys but there are people in the TV and I don’t know what to doooooooo.” He’s wailing now. Kanji mourns his neighbours.

“Teddie, we go in the TV and sort it out.” Kanji says. He’s not sure if Teddie actually hears him, because he’s stumbling around the room as he says it, but he continues either way. “Unless a particularly good breeze or lighter catches us in the ass then we’ll be fuckin’ dandy.”

“But Chie—“

“Is recovering from an injury in the hospital and is physically incapable of helping us.”

“Okay but Sensei—“

“Is on his honeymoon and is probably fucking Yosuke-senpai into a fancy Hawaiian bed right now.” Kanji says without thinking, then pauses, and immediately regrets. Teddie retches audibly into the microphone. “Okay, shit, uh. Just.”

“Kanji _why.”_ Teddie mournfully groans.

“Cause you’re panicking you stupid fucking bear! We physically _can’t_ get the senpais involved!”

There’s a beat. “Yuki-chan is in town.” Teddie says, almost hopefully.

“Yukiko-senpai works her fucking ass off, and deserves a break.” Kanji counters. “We are not getting her involved, and we are gonna deal with this ourselves like fucking adults, okay?” 

Teddie’s pout is audible over the phone. “So mean Kanji!” He huffs. “How can you be scoring with _two_ hot babes when you’re this unbearable?”

Kanji closes his eyes and counts backwards from ten. “Be at Junes in five minutes.” He says, barely maintaining his composure. “Bring your weapons, bring your supplies, but for the love of all things good in this miserable fucking world, _leave the bear suit at home.”_

He hangs up before Teddie can fully squawk out his offended reply. Kanji closes his eyes, pinches the bridge of his nose, and sighs. He looks at the photo of his girls on his desk. They’re in the middle of the spice aisle Junes, Rise’s covering part of a label so it only says “babe”, pointing to Naoto with a shit-eating grin. Naoto’s got her head in her palms, but her smile is still blatantly visible.

Kanji sighs, shakes his head and cracks his neck. “God I fucking miss you guys.” He says to himself, and then goes to find a folding chair that won’t be missed.

『』

Teddie brings the glasses. Teddie brings the weapons. Teddie brings medicinal supplies. Teddie even brings the fucking bear suit.

But he swears on his life that he didn’t bring Yukiko.

“She was just here!” Teddie insists, cowering away from Kanji and ducking behind Yukiko. “I swear on my bear-y existence!” He doesn’t hide very well. Much to their collective surprise, Teddie’s managed to grow in both height and build, now tall but sturdy, his white-blonde hair braided over one shoulder and his once innocent ice-blue eyes now mellow in their kindness and warmth. He’s gotten better at the being-human thing too. They’ve managed to convince everyone that he was Rise’s foreign friend she met on tour and who she brought to live in Japan after a tragic accident, and that Yosuke’s family took him in on their own good will. He’s got a high school diploma and a blossoming modelling career. 

But even after all that, he still wails like a child and clings to Kanji’s shoulders, trembling like a leaf in the wind.

Yukiko snickers, smiling easily at Kanji. “Hey Kanji-kun.” She says, mildly but with something darker lying underneath. “What’s this about not bothering me?”

Kanji swallows. Yukiko hasn’t gotten any bigger since high school, only grown in elegance and grace. In terms of personality, her gentle smile and sweet voice have the town singing her praises as the perfect woman. In terms of industry, half the local businesses are in love with her because the constant stream of visitors keeps their doors open. The Amagi challenge never quite went away, much to her amusement and Chie’s despair. Kanji doesn’t quite get it, because as pretty as she is, Yukiko Amagi is exponentially terrifying, all one hundred and sixty four centimetres of her. Always has been and always will be. “Uh.” He manages intelligently. “Um.”

“Kanji-kun.” She says firmly.

“You’ve been really fu- uh. Darn. Busy with the inn.” He stammers. He can’t break eye contact, even though he desperately wants to. “I didn’t wanna bug you or nothin’.”

Yukiko scoffs, shoving at his shoulder, and just like that the tension is gone. “You and Teddie would’ve gotten yourselves killed.” She says frankly. “How would he have been able to navigate and fight _and_ heal for you?”

Her admonishment is humiliating. Behind Yukiko, Teddie preens. “See!” He crows, smug as all hell. “I told you that Yuki-chan—“

The words die in his throat and his face falls completely when Yukiko whirls around to glare at him. Kanji tries not to feel too satisfied.

『』

Teddie, now graced with the title of Junes floor manager — something he reveres more than the magazines with his face all over the cover — gets them in with little difficulty. Kanji still has mixed feelings about the store, because while on one hand it was the stage for some of the best moments of his teenaged life, it also happened to be a corporate monster which came close to running his family out of business. It’s also creepy as fuck in the night time — the shelves seem to cast shadows that loom over them, their footsteps echo through the silence, and every breath seems more deafening than the last.

Yukiko and Teddie seem fine with it. They never were the scaredy-cats of their group, in fact, Yukiko seems to be having the time of her life. It’s almost disconcerting, seeing her glee. She doesn’t look old, but she sure as hell looks like she runs the Amagi Inn — tall and authoritative and graceful in every which way, but also with the giddiest grin on her face as she plans to recount the tale in the scariest way possible, just to fuck with Chie. 

They reach the TVs soon enough. They’ve been upgraded again, bigger and better than ever. Kanji still looms over it, and for a second they all wonder if they’ll even be able to get through. 

“Once more unto the breach.” Yukiko mutters, advancing without a backwards glance.

“Yuki-chan is so _cool.”_ Teddie whispers reverently. Kanji wholeheartedly agrees.

『』

Nowadays, going into the TV world feels like visiting his grandparents house. But like, the one time he visited his grandparent’s house after he admitting to them that he was in a polyamorous relationship with an idol and a world renowned detective. There’s too much dependence on the scraps of familiarity, overeagerness to jump at something you know and can count on to get you through.

It’s why there’s almost a sigh of relief that passes through Kanji’s lips when they fall into the fog.

Teddie immediately hands out the glasses. Not like they don’t have their own, but he makes new ones every year, just in case. Which is a god send, really. Kanji’s vision is deteriorating rapidly — no thanks to the hours of fine detail labour in absolute darkness, Naoto has said repeatedly — so older versions aren’t exactly compatible with current needs. Teddie, mercifully, sticks to the bare minimum design, despite Yukiko’s repeated request for the bizarre moustache glasses even though literally no one found it funny the first time around let alone seven years later.

Seven years.

Kanji groans, smacking his head with one palm. Teddie and Yukiko don’t look concerned, more curious, because they’re used to his particular brand of dramatics, which Kanji somewhat resents. “I feel so fucking old.” He groans. “Guys, we’re so fucking _old.”_

“Kanji, you’re twenty four.”

Kanji groans louder.

“How rude.” Yukiko sniffs primly, shifting her glasses. In her button down black jacket over her blue patterned pyjama pants, she looks only terrifying. “I feel just as young as I did when I was drugged and kidnapped for the very first time!”

“And I don’t think I have an age!” Teddie says with far too much cheer. It’s easy to forget that he hits the gym regularly and has a fan club at Yasogami High when he’s halfway into that stupid fucking bear suit of his. “My bio says I’m twenty-four, but sometimes I tell people I’m thirty seven!”

He flashes them a bright beam. Kanji feels fifteen years old again with electricity crackling under his veins and laughter bubbling out from his mouth and all the power in the world in his hands.

But then Teddie’s eyes go wide and Yukiko straightens and Kanji is uncomfortably reminded of the fact that he has a bad knee and tax returns and something dangerous in the fog. He has Yukiko’s flame and Teddie’s frost but the spaces between them are as clear as day and it is unease that settles in his stomach as he runs after Teddie in a full sprint.

“It’s strong!” He’s yelling. “There’s a persona user and some shadows and they’re all so unbelievably strong—“

“We’re stronger.” Yukiko says. Kanji watched her torch multiple Gods with fury in her eyes. “We always have been stronger than what’s come for us.”

There might be batteries in his marrow. “Fuck yeah!” Kanji whoops. “Bring it _on!”_

It’s strange how comforting the fog is now.

『』

There’s no dungeon, which is somewhat of a relief. The rolling fields and crystal clear lake that they worked so hard to uncover always get trampled whenever a new type of bullshit happens in the TV world, so Kanji’s more than a little pleased to see the nature left alone for once.

However, the signal is coming from Heaven.

_Fuck_ Heaven.

They all tense as soon as they realize where they’re going, and the unease only grows stronger as their path doesn’t diverge. Kanji wants to grab Teddie by the ears and throw Yukiko over his shoulder and drag them all away and back home and to watch shitty action movies with them and comment on the parts that Chie and Yosuke would surely lose their shit over. He never wants to set foot in that fucking place ever again, with it’s bullshit clouds and rainbows and the ever pervasive scent of blood that still lingers after all this time.

But he follows, biting the inside of his cheek until he can taste blood, until the three of them are stood at the pearly gates that they’ve long since come to despise.

Yukiko sighs shakily, opening and closing her fan with anxious snaps of her wrist. “You’re sure Teddie?” She says quietly. “It’s here?”

Teddie nods. Kanji rubs the top of his fuzzy blue head gently. He hates this place more than anyone. At some point, Yosuke — with a drunken flush to his cheeks and a stony seriousness in his eyes— told Kanji that all of Teddie’s nightmares are set there. Not the oppressive fog he was lost in. Not the desolate streets where he wandered forever. But Heaven, where he truly and genuinely believed that he failed them all.

Kanji wants to beat the truth into the stupid bear, but all he can do is take Ted’s paw and squeeze it tight, watch as Yukiko flanks the other side, and walk forwards together.

The touching act of camaraderie is broken up when they are immediately bum rushed by a pair of shadows and they spring into action. Kanji crackles and charges with a roar, Yukiko squares her shoulders and snaps her fan and sets them alight, and Teddie’s just getting a read on their abilities when they’ve absolutely decimated them all.

“Whoops.” Kanji says, cracking his neck. The folding chair’s bent to shit. “I remember the bastards ‘round here hitting a lot harder than that.”

“We were sixteen Kanji-kun. We have entirely different Persona’s now.” Yukiko flips a long lock over her shoulder. She’s unbuttoned her jacket, revealing a bright pink shirt that says “BITCHIN” across the front. Kanji makes the conscious decision to ignore that and turn his focus on a pouting Teddie. Not much better, but not mind-breaking either.

“I didn’t even get to analyze them.” He huffs. 

“Aw, cheer up Ted. We’re strong enough to just blast through regardless of type advantage n’ shit. You can fight alongside us!” He strides forwards, ruffles Teddie’s head, and keeps moving on. Heaven’s not as bad when the shadows are doormats and there’s no deadline looming over their heads. Sure, it ain’t the strip club, where they used to come with contraband booze and get wasted beyond belief and fuck around on the poles, screaming and whooping at the tops of their lungs. It’s not the bath houses, which they routinely abuse as free relaxation, piling into the steam filled rooms at the end of exam season. But fuck, it’s something.

They blaze a trail without much worry. Takeji Zaiten roars in approval, finally sated after months of bitching about how boring everything is. The bastard slips through a couple of times, hits that are harder than needed, shouts that aren’t just too loud but wholly unnecessary. The others don’t give him shit for it. Lord knows how much they’ve struggled with wrestling the godly part of their cognition into place. Chie’s aggressive streak still runs a mile wide. Back when he had a million different personas running through his head, Yu’s demeanour was impossible to predict. But after all was said and done, and Yu filed away all the extras and stuck with Izanagi-no-Okami as the sole source of his power, he still was a wild and unpredictable guy, so maybe he’s just like that on purpose. 

Fuck, he misses the guy. Misses both of them. The last they saw him and Yosuke was at their informal wedding ceremony, thrown together last minute and putting Kanji in the position of custom making two suits in a week. They had always planned to abuse their status as reserve Shadow Operatives to fly out to Vegas and get hitched, but Nanako gave them her best puppy dog eyes and said she always wanted to be their flower girl, and all hell broke loose.

Kanji still has the photos on the mantle. Yosuke and Yu, foreheads pressed together, eyes red and rubbed raw, grinning broadly, Yosuke’s mouth unmistakably midway through his favourite word in the whole world. The next shot is of Yosuke yelling indiscriminately out at the audience, not quite looking towards the camera, Yu next to him with his head tipped back and mouth wide open around a laugh. Chie had cupped her hands around and yelled “GAYYYY” at the top of her lungs, and got chased down by Yosuke for at least two minutes straight. Yu had laughed so hard he sat down on the altar and cried.

Kanji has the two shots framed side by side, and he looks at them every single morning.

It’s stuff like this that keeps him going even after he falters on the stairs, vividly remembering the way Naoto’s body had crumpled to the floor. Or the part in the hall where he watched his leader’s face slacken at the sound of Nanako’s broken voice echoing from above. He thinks about watching Dojima walk Yu down the aisle. Thinks about doing push up contests with Chie on the riverbank. Thinks about Rise sprinting off stage like a bullet from it’s chamber and leaping into his arms with a joyful cheer. Thinks about Naoto’s thumb wiping away the food from his cheek and smiling at him gently with something tender in her eyes. Thinks about dinner around the kotatsu, their legs intertwined with his.

He tears through the next shadow with vigour, and sprints forwards without stopping to take a breath.

『』

Sat on the steps, with her legs crossed and hat askew, Marie greets them with a simple “yo.”

“Marie?” Kanji splutters. “Were you—“

“Nope.” She sighs, standing up and brushing the back of her yoga pants. She looks like she’s dressed purely for comfort, but more than what Yukiko’s wearing. Like she was called out in the middle of the night and told to dress for an excursion. Her hair is tied in a messy bun. She accepts Teddie’s hug begrudgingly, but entirely fond all the same. Patting his hair, she levels her gaze at the two of them once more. “But I’m here with a message.”

Yukiko tilts her head. “From who?”

“Margaret.”

“Fuck.” Kanji mutters. “Fuck, this is bigger than expected. Does she know senpai’s not here?”

“Perfectly aware.” Marie sighs. “This is less a matter of destiny or duty and more of an unexpected circumstance. I’m not qualified to know all the details, but I can tell you this.” Her eyes turn to steel. “You might want to walk away from this one.”

Teddie pauses, looking up at her with wide eyes. “Emmy-chan?”

She shakes her head. “You’re under no obligation to see this through. Hell, Margaret got blind sided by the whole thing herself, and she’s more than pissed off too. This is entirely unexpected, bizarre, fucked up, freakish, whack—“

“We get it.” Kanji blurts, before Marie’s face goes from tomato-red to feverish fury. She glares at him, chest heaving, and Kanji is proud to say that he only blanches a little bit. “You’re going to be okay getting out of here?”

“How many times did I knock you on your ass in the Hollowed Forest?” She shoots back, but her smile is as bright as it is wry, and she gives them all a hug as she walks down the stairs and into the clouds.

Yukiko clears her throat. “As the oldest one here—“

“By one year.”

“I could be centuries old, for all we know.”

“— I am the de facto leader.” Yukiko continues, ignoring the two of them entirely. “And I say we go up and deal with it.”

“No offence Yuki-chan, but duh.” Teddie says, clearly not having gained a fear of God in the past few years. 

They put out the rapidly spreading fire on Teddie’s suit, heal up, clean up, and then walk up the stairs.

『』

Margaret is sat next to a body, crimson staining the clouds around them. She looks up with a start. Kanji didn’t know she could be startled. Didn’t know she could be anything other than prim and proper, but there’s a crease in her forehead and shadows under her eyes. She tilts her head in their direction.

“Apologies for the short notice.” She says. Her voice is eight different kinds of tense.

“It’s not a problem.” Yukiko says, manager voice in full effect. “Could you—“

“We are blessed.” Margaret says. Her voice sounds hollow. “Unbelievably blessed that our fates have unfolded in the way that they have.” Her hands shake by her sides. “My sister served a man just like your leader. A man who gave his life for the sake of the world. And she has searched endlessly for a way to free him from that fate, and just as she found it, he asked her to use it on someone else. Someone who he believed deserved a second chance more than he desired to return to earth.”

Kanji opens his mouth. Closes it. “Shit dude.” He rasps, fully aware that it’s entirely inappropriate but reeling too hard to do anything.

Margaret’s yellow gaze has never looked so fragile. “You’ve chosen to accept this burden, correct?” She doesn’t wait for confirmation. “Carry it well, for much has been lost in the process.”

She doesn’t even bother pretending to walk away. She simply blinks out of existence.

Yukiko’s moving before Kanji gets the chance to blink, dropping to her knees and crying out “Sumeo-Okami!” The gentle glow of revival hums around them, and Kanji approaches with infinite more hesitancy, Teddie right behind him.

The body is nothing short of mangled. Kanji saw Saki Konishi’s body way back when, saw the gashes and teeth marks that littered her skin. It’s the same here, except the body is clad in skin tight black and wearing a black helmet with a shattered visor. In one hand is a gun. In the other is a sword.

“That’s… that’s not a normal human thing. Is it?” Teddie tentatively asks.

“Not even a little bit.” Kanji replies, kneeling, wincing as his bad knee twinges. He doesn’t remove the helmet, it feels wrong to do so. Like he’s barging in on something private, stepping on grave markers and all that. But he tilts the head, revealing light brown hair and pale skin and red eyes opened wide in pain.

Kanji frowns. Remember’s Naoto’s chest puffed with pride, talking about her very own protégé, the one to carry her illustrious title. She had laughed when Rise sent a screenshot of an article boasting his face, captioned simply, “our kid’s all grown up!!”

“Akechi Goro?” Kanji murmurs.

The red eyes flood with light, and the body chokes out a wheezing breath. 

Kanji jumps away, nearly tripping over Teddie. Partly out of shock, but mostly to give Yukiko the room to work her healer magic and deescalate the panicking person who probably only remembered getting absolutely obliterated. She’s done it many times over the past few years. They’ve always joked that she could be a field medic if the Amagi Inn ever fell through. Then she went ahead and administered CPR in the middle of town and well it’s not really a joke anymore.

She’s got a hand on his shoulder and she’s running a stream of soothing words, but soon enough she’s glancing over at him and Kanji moves, holding the body — the person down. “You shouldn’t move.” Kanji says, not bothering to try and be soothing. It’s not his thing. “You’re going to fuck yourself up even more dude, just stay down.”

Those red eyes are full of venom and grief and hysterical fear. “This wasn’t supposed to be it.” The person howls. Barely a person, more a kid than anything. A youthful voice shredded into something awful. Something beyond recognition. “Maruki you fucking bastard but this wasn’t the fucking _deal!”_

“Diarahan.” Yukiko grits out. Shit. The revive she used was one of her best, and if she’s using her strongest heal on top of that then things really aren’t looking good. 

The boy laughs maniacally. “Of course!” He wheezes. Blood stains his lips. “Of fucking course I’m thrown into it with more persona users, God fucking damn it _all.”_ He rages in place and Kanji has to force his weight down but he doesn’t want to put too much into it because his sweater’s already soaked with blood and this kid is already fucking shattered as it is—

“Akechi-kun.” Teddie says behind them. The boy jerks, gasping.

“How did you—“ He breathes. It’s the closest thing to calm that he’s resembled all night.

Teddie smiles his biggest smile. “I’m bear-y smart.” He says, reassuringly. “Now please, go to sleep.”

And then he uses a skill that Kanji has never seen before in his entire life. Akechi’s eyes roll and he slumps, limp on the ground. Kanji looks at him. “You mean you could’ve put shadows to sleep all this time?”

“Obviously not Kanji, it’s the same as all the other status stuff!” Teddie huffs. Both of their voices are too thin. Yukiko has long since finished healing, but she doesn’t move her hand from where the largest gash was — across his stomach, letting his organs spill out. Kanji’s seen so many organs from far too many people.

“The detective prince heading the investigation on the Phantom Thieves knows what a persona is.” Yukiko says.

Kanji ignores the sensation of a cavern opening in his rib cage and focuses on lifting Akechi. “Let’s go before we get jumped.” He mutters and Teddie casts Traesto and they disappear.

『』

After a small amount of arguing, they take him to the Amagi Inn.

Kanji felt his home would be better, but more so wanted to be able to continue the yukata orders he had remaining while dealing with the situation at hand. Yukiko told him to just bring his supplies there and she’d lend him a machine to do his work. Teddie briefly suggests his place, but it’s more just so he could place himself in the conversation.

Kanji deposits Akechi in one of the rooms, instructs Teddie how to hold him down if he wakes up swinging, and calls Yosuke while he jogs back to his place.

“Yo, Kanji.” Yosuke says cheerfully.

“Senpai, are you both there?” 

There’s a beat, and Yu answers with no small amount of trepidation. “Yes? I’m here Kanji, what’s going on.”

Kanji inhales. “Teddie felt someone in the TV world so me and him and Yukiko-senpai went to go investigate. Marie and Margaret showed up too, and said something about how someone like Yu-senpai gave up their chance to escape death and instead gave it someone who deserved a second chance,” he takes a deep shuddering breath “and that person was a very much mangled and not breathing _Akechi Goro—“_

Yosuke swears loudly. Yu doesn’t make a noise, but Kanji can see his face perfectly.

“Yeah, he knew what a persona was and he woke up screaming and raging.” He slows to a walk, running a hand over his face. He still hasn’t taken off his glasses. “Shit, senpai, he…”

“You’re sure it was Akechi?” Yu asks. He sounds just shy of measured, the way he does when he wants to play leader but is floundering just as hard as the rest of them are. “You’re one hundred percent sure?”

“Naoto was so proud of him, she wouldn’t stop talking to me about him.” He groans. “She fucking mentored him for like two years, up until he hit second year of high school. Said he was damn near prodigal.”

“Kanji,” Yu’s voice trembles. “Akechi Goro has been missing for almost a month now. Kanji, Akechi Goro has been presumed _dead_ for at least a week.”

The words in Kanji’s mouth turn to ash. “Fuck.” He remembers the tension he kissed from the corners of Naoto’s mouth. He starts walking again, fists clenched by his side. “Fuck, are you sure?”

“It spread like wildfire in the prosecutor’s office. It’s all anyone would talk about for days, especially because Nijima-san, who worked with him on the Phantom Thieves case, didn’t say a word about it at all. Barely even reacted.”

“Senpai, he was so fucked up when he got here he barely looked human, what the hell is going _on?”_

“You said Margaret and Marie, right? We always get wrapped up in the freaky blue people shit.” Yosuke says, far too emphatically for what should be an offhanded joke. 

“Keep us updated Kanji.” Yu says. “We’ll head—“

“You’re not coming back for shit.” Kanji snaps. “Get drunk on the beach and watch the sunset and profess your love and all that crap. Chie’ll be out of the hospital in a few days, Yukiko’s pulling out all the stops, and Teddie will skin you both alive _and_ cry for two days if you guys come home now.” There’s a beat. “Who’s crying.” Kanji asks, exasperated, because in their old age his senpai have gotten worryingly weepy.

“Both of us.” Sniffles Yosuke, and Kanji snorts as he turns the key to his home.

It takes him five more minutes to hang up. Fifteen to collect his shit. Two minutes to text their group chat to call Yosuke for the full details. 

He takes exactly one minute to look at the photo of them. Summer of 2012. When they had settled into their skin and hung off of each other’s shoulders and finally breathed a sigh of relief. No more murderers or tournaments or creeping fog that swallowed them whole. Just the sticky sweet heat of the Inaba summer and each other, home at last, under the sun.

Kanji feels his face twist into a smile. “Once more, unto the breach.” He mutters, wry and resigned, and he opens his door and breathes in air that’s just cold enough to burn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this original started as a dumb thing about yukiko, teddie and kanji accidentally becoming the pt's heroes after saving their dumb asses but then I watched some royal content and the maruki bad ending DESTROYED me. akechi deserves a proper shot at redemption, and so I took the bare bones original draft and put this together quickly. no real plan for this tbh, but expect a lot of dumb jokes, exasperated akechi, and crying. reach out to the truth time Baby


	2. Yukiko Amagi Has No Problems With Bloodstains

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I adjusted some of the tags and the title bc I fucked it up Whoops

The Room Under Renovation is at the end of the hall on the second floor of the Amagi Inn. It’s never actually been under renovation, of course. Yukiko’s mother used to use it for naps as a girl and always got caught, so she decided that when she took over the inn she was going to guarantee a way for her to take her naps in peace. Since then it’s become an informal watering hole of sorts for the staff. The break room is for conversations and lunchtime talks. The Room Under Renovation is for when Sawamura-san’s migraine makes her stagger in the halls, or when Hagakure-kun’s grandmother calls and he needs to fight her for fifteen minutes.

Yukiko files the eventual apology she’ll have to make to her staff for the closure of The Room Under Renovation, but puts that relatively low on the list of things that have to be done.

First she strips him down. Somehow his black suit and helmet had disappeared when they left the TV world, leaving him in an untouched school uniform with a fancy emblem on the chest. Teddie helps with moving him, uncharacteristically quiet, missing all available opportunities for his standard dirty jokes. A mark of growth, Yukiko thinks wryly, wondering how disastrous the situation would’ve been if it was back when the murders were happening. Back when she was seventeen and trying to figure out if she liked boys by watching heterosexual porn through the gaps of her fingers.

Present Yukiko snorts, and yanks Akechi’s boxers down without hesitation. 

They sponge bath him gently. Teddie keeps him curled against his shoulder as Yukiko cleans up his back. He doesn’t even stir, doesn’t even snore. “When did sleep ailments become a thing?” She asks, quietly, toweling down the back of his neck.

Teddie shrugs. “A bunch of new stuff started happening with our personas. You weren’t there, but when we were in Okinawa, Sensei used a new persona that a-bear-ently had nuclear attacks.”

Yukiko freezes. The towel drips onto the floor. “Nuclear?” She asks. Teddie nods. She wonders if radiation poisoning was a status effect they had to be concerned about. 

His body is, frankly, ruined. His neck is ruined, parts of his throat were visible as she healed him. The lacerations over his chest would most likely impair his breathing permanently. And even besides those, he’s absolutely covered in scars. 

Yukiko learned how to discern fresh scars from old a long time ago. Yosuke has a massive burn scar that crawls up his thigh and sprawls around his stomach. The first time they went swimming and he took his shirt off with a grin, Yukiko had almost thrown up, convinced that it was her shadow, that it was _her_ that did this to him. It turned out to be the result of a freak ramen accident that he absolutely refused to get into the details of, but that was the day that Yukiko bought two books on physiology and signed herself up for first aid classes.

She’s seen all of her teammates’ scars. The stretch marks on Kanji’s sides from his first growth spurt. The hardened blisters on the bottom of Rise’s feet from the hours of dancing and training. The puckered flesh on Naoto’s shoulder from her first ever firefight. Her teammates are littered with them, after so many years and so many battles. She has her fair share too, the back of her hand from a fumbled blade, behind her ear from a silent blow. But none of them are as mottled as Akechi is.

She’s been trying to work with efficiency. Clinical and clean. Not without care, of course, because he is far too fragile in her calloused hands and she feels as though Akechi hasn’t seen enough care in his time. But God. _God,_ it makes her stomach churn, to see flesh marred over like this. The high school detective, no older than seventeen? But there’s a battlefield laid bare on his skin. Yukiko wonder’s if it’s bone deep.

Teddie helps with bandaging him. There’s been times where they’ve healed each other almost perfectly only for the wounds to seep open hours later when they’re doubled over homework and suddenly bleeding on their bedroom floors. Rise usually puts into quantifiable numbers, which Yosuke immediately turns into video game jargon and now Yukiko has the habit of thinking in HP and SP which Teddie’s nose can’t determine as accurately as Rise can. Better to be safe than sorry.

“Yuki-chan—”

Teddie can probably handle the yukata and roll out the futon. Akechi’s just going to have to stay in The Room Under Renovation for now. No one else has the space and frankly, Yukiko’s not sure if they have the proper excuse as to why they have an unconscious man in their home.

“Yuki-chan…?”

Of course, neither does Yukiko. Hm. They do need to come up with a false identity for him, no? She can’t outright say they have Goro Akechi in her inn. The press would be a nightmare! They can’t use the foreign friend excuse again, they barely got away with it last time…

“Yuki-chan!” 

Though his hair does look somewhat like Chie’s. Oh, yes, that’s perfect! That’s exactly what they’ll do — or they would do, if Chie didn’t dye her hair. Darn. That’s out of the question. But Chie spent enough time on Tatsumi Port Island in the police academy so maybe…

 _“Yukiko!”_ Teddie wails. Yukiko jumps with a yelp, looking over at Teddie. He’s rolled out the futon and dressed Akechi in the yukata and brushed the hair from his face and laid a towel over his forehead. “Yuki-chan he’s got a fever.”

Yukiko blinks. “And you know how to deal with those.” She replies. The sliding door rattles open, and Kanji steps through its frame. His arms are laden with supplies.

“Told the senpais, texted the group chat, brought my shit, ready to fucking party.” He announces, piling his stuff in the corner. 

“Excellent.” Yukiko replies. “What time is it?” 

Kanji blinks. “Uh, like four am?”

“Wonderful, please wake me at seven, I have to visit Chie in the hospital.” Yukiko manages, and then promptly collapses on the spot.

『』

Chie perks up as the door opens, then immediately groans with a frown. “It’s a fracture.” She says, shaking her head. “I’ll be out by tomorrow and then we’ll have to carry all these flowers back by ourselves, _while_ I’m on crutches.” She still takes the bouquet and kisses Yukiko with a smile. “You’re the strangest, y’know?” She laughs, shaking her head again, like doing so will somehow explain the situation to her.

It’s like watching the sky open up after a rainy day. It’s like that moment in the street after Adachi and Ameno-Sagiri where the sun was bright and warm and Yukiko had laughed so hard that she cried and then Naoto collapsed from exhaustion and sent them all into a panic. Well, minus the Naoto collapsing part. Yukiko grins, reaching for the back of Chie’s head where her undercut is just a bit too long, tangling her fingers in the strands of hair.

“I’ll get one of the delivery boys to take care of it.” Yukiko says with purposeful flippancy, and beams with Chie throws back her head and _laughs_ full bodied and bright. 

“A menace.” She sighs, leaning into Yukiko’s touch. “A downright menace you are.”

Yukiko grins, delighted.

“You’re also a _fucking moron_ for working yourself until you dropped like that.”

Yukiko wilts, insulted. “I’m not a moron.” She grumbles. 

“You are.”

“Am not.”

“You worked for like eighteen hours straight and passed out, and then came to see me?” Chie demands. She would have her hands on her hips if she were able to stand up. “And you stopped for flowers on the way?”

Yukiko pouts. “I just wanted to see you smile.” Chie blushes, which is always a good thing, but she’s more resistant to Yukiko’s pouting now than she was when they were kids. She swats at Yukiko’s hand with a scowl.

“You should’ve called me as soon as it happened instead of letting me wake up in the morning to find out that my girlfriend collapsed while reviving a dead man.” She scowls, but Chie’s never been good at being intimidating. She’s always held softness in her eyes and something tender at the corners of her lips. Yukiko finds herself melting, finds herself cupping Chie’s face with one hand and kissing her slow, kissing her deep. Chie huffs, exasperated as always, but she kisses back.

They kiss, the sun streaming through their windows, the hospital bed creaking as Chie leans over to grab the back of her neck, and Yukiko is sighing and leaning in closer and closer and her mouth parts and Chie’s tongue is so _warm—_

“Satonaka-san?” The door rattles open and they barely have a moment to jerk apart before a nurse comes in, sheepishly smiling. Oh she definitely heard the breathy little half gasps Chie always makes whenever Yukiko snags her lips with her teeth. The nurse is blushing all the way up to her ears. It’s kind of cute. “Is it alright if I… interrupt?”

“Maybe come back in a minute Fujisaki-san.” Chie says pleasantly. The nurse squeaks and ducks out. Chie pinches Yukiko with a vengeance. “You’re the _worst,_ we’re in public you demon.”

Yukiko sticks her tongue out, and yelps when Chie pinches her nose. They swat at each other with grins that threaten to split their faces. The sun catches every single one of Chie’s freckles that spot her face. She’s almost unrecognizable compared to her highschool self. She’s broader and tanner and built, with military-like cropped hair and a scar that cuts through her eyebrow. She looks rugged and ruthless but she still blushes up to her ears like she’s seventeen and kissing Yukiko on the steps of the train station before heading into the city to pursue her dreams.

They had fought a lot, at first, after Chie had left for the police academy and Yukiko started her business course at a nearby university. Long distance wasn’t for most and it certainly wasn’t for them, every other night ended with shouting and screaming over the phone. They had broken up at least four times during those years, and Yukiko hadn’t talked to Chie for months at one point, a standstill only broken by Chie coming home to Inaba and standing on Yukiko’s doorstep in the pouring rain and shouting at the top of the lungs that she better come out, Yukiko Amagi, or lord knows what I’ll do to your establishment.

Things are better now. Healthier. Yukiko leaves for a week to a conference in Sapporo and they manage not to completely self-destruct over Skype. Chie came out to her parents and spent the weekend at Yukiko’s in a bundle of blankets and tears before she rallied herself with a vigour and went and had a very long and very difficult conversation that still hasn’t quite reached a conclusion. Yukiko came out to her parents and had the misfortune of listening to her mother’s fond reminiscance of her bisexual romp in the nightlife of Tokyo in the eighties, and how her greatest accomplishment was coercing her straightlaced country boy father into a drag show on their second date. They moved in and argued relentlessly over the laundry schedule before they finally took some pen to paper and made it _work._

They used to think they were defined by side glances and secret grins and ankles hooked beneath the Junes cafeteria tables. Now they butt heads and snap and shout until Chie grabs her face in her hands and says that they’re getting too hot headed and that she needs to go run this off but when she’s back they’re going to sit down and talk and listen and make it work. Yukiko used to think that love was summer yukatas and stolen kisses on the school roof and soaking in the sun on the Samegawa bank. But love is a steady conversation and chore lists in the kitchen and saying that you’re sorry with all the sincerity in your heart and understanding and taking a step forward. 

Chie bats her arm. “You said you wanted to propose something that wasn’t marriage for once.” She prompts, because she keeps a mental tally of all the topics Yukiko wants to broach and all the tangents they inevitably go on. “And you sounded pretty damn excited too.”

Yukiko perks up. “Oh! Yes!” She shifts in her chair clasping her hands over her chest. “Okay, so! We have to start thinking about Akechi-kun’s identity and how we explain him, because he’s not going to stay in our home forever, right?”

Chie narrows her eyes. “Right.”

“And we can’t use the foreign friend excuse, because he looks really Japanese and we barely got away with it with Teddie.”

Chie’s eyes narrow further. “Yeah.”

“And we can think about his actual identity later, but I think I have a backstory that we can go with!”

Chie gives up on narrowing her eyes and just screws them shut, pinching the bridge of her nose and breathing a heavy sigh. She waves her hand. “Hit me.”

Yukiko says, with the brightest grin she can manage, “so I was thinking that either we could say that he’s an old flame of yours back when you were at police school or that he’s, well, your illegitimate child!”

Chie’s hands drop to her lap. She stares slack-jawed up at her. “My _what.”_ She says, completely stunned. Yukiko preens.

“You two look very alike.” She says, smugly. “It was really a natural conclusion.”

“I dye my hair you moron.” Chie says with the utmost affection before pulling Yukiko into a bruising kiss that lights her nerves with the warmth of the sun.

『』

**> >in: Risette Sucked My Dick In a Wild Duck Burger Bathroom, 12/26, 10:32 AM**

**> >from: ephemeral bowlcut**

_hey guys!!_

**> >from: 64th Most Beautiful Face In The World 2019**

_senpai !!_

**> >from: ephemeral bowlcut**

_oh my god_

**> >from: 64th Most Beautiful Face In The World 2019**

_??_

**> >from: ephemeral bowlcut**

_what happened to the chat name_

**> >from: 64th Most Beautiful Face In The World 2019**

_OH MY GOD I DIDNT EVEN NOTICE_

_i bet it was yosuke-senpai_

_how rude !! i would never do such a thing !!_

_it was in a big bang burger first of all_

**> >from: ephemeral bowlcut**

_RISE_

**> >from: 64th Most Beautiful Face In The World 2019**

_(ﾉ≧ڡ≦)_

_nyways what’s up senpai ??_

_is it about the Situation back in inaba_

**> >from: ephemeral bowlcut**

_yup_

_but i wanna wait until more people show up_

**> > from: 64th Most Beautiful Face In The World 2019**

_ooo keep me waiting why don’t u_

**> >from: ephemeral bowlcut**

_u kno it ;)_

**> >from: thunder thighs**

_Ew stop it both of you I hate it here_

_WHO CHANGED MY NICKNAME_

**> >from: ephemeral bowlcut**

_I like it_

**> > from: 64th Most Beautiful Face In The World 2019**

_I like it_

**> > from: Cog of the Capitalist Machine**

_I like it!!!_

_Also why was the keep it waiting joke gross ??_

**> >from: thunder thighs**

_Im not telling him_

**> >from: no gender just gun**

_Teddie do you know what ‘Edging’ is?_

**> >from: thunder thighs**

_Oh my god_

**> > from: Cog of the Capitalist Machine**

_Yes :((_

**> >from: thunder thighs**

_OH MY GOD_

**> >from: no gender just gun**

_Knowledge is power._

**> > from: 64th Most Beautiful Face In The World 2019**

_Nao-kun !!!_

**> >from: no gender just gun**

_Hi Rise, I’m sorry I haven’t been able to call much._

_This of course, extends to all of you as well._

_The situation in Tokyo surrounding Shido and his influence is… nightmarish, to say the least._

**> >from: ephemeral bowlcut**

_Naoto literally do not worry about it_

_I was lucky enough to finish my forensic psych rotation over the summer and even that was hell_

_I would tell you to just take care of yourself and thatd be enough but under the current circumstances,_

**> >from: no gender just gun**

_It’s a tall order, senpai._

**> >from: ephemeral bowlcut**

_Yeah i figured_

_Which brings me to my next point_

_Partner and I are coming home_

**> > from: 64th Most Beautiful Face In The World 2019**

_SENPAI NO_

**> >from: no gender just gun**

_Senpai, are you being serious?_

**> >from: ephemeral bowlcut**

_Guys,_

**> > from: Cog of the Capitalist Machine**

_Sensei!!! Nooooooooooooo u can’t yet!!!!!!!_

**> >from: thunder thighs**

_did yosuke put you up to this im gonna kick his ass_

**> > from: disaster twunk**

_FUCK U CHIE IT WASNT ME ATKLDNFSJKVF_

**> >from: thunder thighs**

_HOW DID HE GET ON HERE SO FAST_

**> > from: Cog of the Capitalist Machine**

_Yosuke’s down! Someone revive him!_

**> > from: ephemeral bowlcut**

_Aggro-ing my husband is a banned action for the next twenty four hours he had a nightmare last night and didn’t sleep if u bait him into replying then u miss meal privileges_

**> >from: thunder thighs**

_Damn it_

_U win this time yosuke_

_((make sure he sleeps well on the plane okay but don’t tell him i said that))_

**> > from: ephemeral bowlcut**

_he says thank u but told me to make sure that u know that it’s sullen_

**> >from: thunder thighs**

_fuck u dude_

**> >from: spiky softie**

_Man senpai what’d i tell u_

_Also my nickname sucks_

**> > from: 64th Most Beautiful Face In The World 2019**

_Well Sorry i was running out of ideas_

**> >from: spiky softie**

_Ur my girlfriend can you at least pretend to be nicer to me_

**> > from: 64th Most Beautiful Face In The World 2019**

_Hi baby cakes <3333_

**> >from: spiky softie**

_Nvm i hate it_

**> > from: 64th Most Beautiful Face In The World 2019**

_RUDE!!?!?!?_

**> > from: murder lesbian**

_Yu, please don’t feel obligated to come back! We’re more than capable of handling the incident here by ourselves!!_

_Ooh! I like my nickname Rise-chan_

**> >from: thunder thighs**

_Of course u do u fuckin dyke_

**> > from: murder lesbian**

_I’m doing a u-turn right now and coming back for you Chie!!!_

**> >from: thunder thighs**

_ur on the BUS_

**> > from: ephemeral bowlcut**

_See this is mostly the reason we’re coming back now_

**> >from: no gender just gun**

_Pre-emptive intervention for potential murder charges?_

**> > from: ephemeral bowlcut**

_No that’s kanji’s job_

**> >from: spiky softie**

_Aw FUCK_

**> > from: ephemeral bowlcut**

_No we really miss you and frankly we’re kind bored of hawaii_

_It’s been awesome so far and yeah we’re losing some money by cutting it short but damn it i miss yall_

**> >from: spiky softie**

_Aw fuck man_

**> > from: ephemeral bowlcut**

_Also margaret appeared in my dream and basically told me to get my bitchass back to inaba or face the consequences_

Yukiko doubles over laughing on the bus, and barely even feels the stares.

『』

“I would just like to say that I am not to blame.” Teddie announces as Yukiko opens the door. “And that it’s all Kanji’s fault.”

“Like hell you stupid bear!” Kanji roars, but Yukiko’s not listening to either of them and instead staring at one beaming Nanako Dojima.

Her eyes sparkle. “Hi Yukiko-neesan!” She chirps. On the floor, next to her, Akechi Goro gives a weak and pained groan.

“Hi Nanako-chan.” Yukiko says faintly. She places her bag by the door and walks to Akechi’s other side. “Does your dad know you’re here today?”

Nanako gives her a weird look. “Duh.” She says. “It’s Thursday. It was your turn to take me into the TV today.”

Yukiko makes a little punched out wheeze. “Right.” She says. “Uh. Sorry. Things… came up.” She can only hope that her teammates had the sense to not disclose every last detail to her.

“No kidding, who knew Akechi Goro would be in the TV world!” Nanako says brightly. Yukiko whirls around and meets the gaze of a _very_ guilty Teddie. 

“I’m _sorry.”_ He wails. “You know how Nana-chan is!”

“I take offense to that.” Nanako says, but Yukiko ignores her in favour of burying her face in her palms with a groan.

Somewhere along the line, Nanako transformed from a doe eyed angel to a little demon child with all the willpower in the world and the complete inability to compromise. She’s not a bad kid, not at all. She’s in the top five of her class and an absolute darling who starts donation drives at the school and led her school’s volleyball team to the prefectural semi-finals. She’s not even spoiled or bratty. She’s just stubborn and bull-headed and _way_ too curious for her own good. 

The general consensus is that it’s Teddie’s fault. He was, after all, the one to tell Nanako all about the TV world and the truth behind her hospitalization and just exactly where Adachi went. Which, of course, snowballed into Nanako getting into the TV world by herself somehow — which is something they have never really figured out and really probably should — and getting her persona. 

Dojima nearly skinned them alive.

Now, after two years of weekly TV trips, Nanako’s gotten stronger and more confident. And with that confidence comes a frankly concerning lack of fear for God or any other authority. Dojima, now sporting a soft spot a mile wide, doesn’t help much and more or less lets his daughter run wild so long as she doesn’t do anything illegal or life-threatening. And Nanako is _very_ good at stretching the limits of those two categories. 

Still. Yukiko has to try. “Nanako-chan.” She says, gently, catching Nanako’s hand as she goes to soak the towel one more time. “I’m going to be frank when I say that I’m not quite comfortable with you being here for this.”

Nanako makes a weird face that looks kind of like Kanji two seconds before he starts yelling at Yosuke. “Nahhhh.” She says, with enough teenage nonchalance to send Yukiko reeling. “It’ll be fine.”

“Hgnf.” Says Akechi, face twisting and limbs twitching. Everyone falls silent, watching him with baited breath. His face relaxes, and he settles once more. The tension breaks.

“Don’t even bother trying to convince her, Yukiko-senpai.” Kanji snorts behind her, starting up his sewing machine once more. “Teddie spent seventeen minutes tryin’ and it was like watching a puppy run into a brick wall over and over.”

“You could’ve helped, _Kanji!”_

“Hell nah, it was funny.”

“Puppies giving themselves brain damage is funny to you?”

“If I didn’t have a lap full of fabric I’d beat your ass into the dirt, bear.”

Nanako once used to watch their banter with eyes wide as saucers, like she could hardly believe what she was witnessing. She used to giggle herself into red-faced breathlessness, cling to their sleeves and echo their words, jump in place and laugh like her little body couldn’t handle all that joy. Now all she does is roll her eyes with all the severity in the world, and aggressively dunk her cloth back into the water.

Yukiko snickers, but catches Nanako’s wrist. “Nanako-chan,” she says gently. “Thank you for helping, really. But I would really appreciate it if you could go to the kitchen and make some congee for all of us, and for Akechi-kun here. I really appreciated it when you brought me some when I fell sick last year, and I think it’d be just what he needs when he wakes up.”

Nanako scowls. “I’m not a baby Yukiko-neesan.” She grumbles, but she’s Nanako so it’s entirely without heat and she obediently gets up and dusts off her leggings and gives Teddie a high five on her way out the door. She pokes her head back inside. “Should I make it super bland or like just regular?” 

Yukiko purses her lips. “Mm, lets go regular for now.” Nanako nods, shoots her a wink which is startlingly similar to Yosuke’s and then skips down the hall humming under her breath.

Teddie slumps over on the floor. Now that Yukiko’s paying attention to him, he’s really not doing anything. “Ughhhhhhhh.” He moans miserably, words muffled by his cheek smushed into the tatami floor. “Why does everything have to be so complicated? Why can’t we have one year without this kinda nonsense.”

Kanji and Yukiko exchange glances. “Ted, usually you’re the one complaining about how boring everything is.” Kanji says, and he’s barely halfway through his sentence when Teddie rockets up and starts protesting.

“This isn’t what I meant! I meant like, we all go skiing in the mountains again, or a concert happens in Okinawa and I take Nana-chan to it! I don’t mean _this_ kind of exciting!” He huffs, slowly melting back onto the floor. “I wish we could just call Mit-chan and have them take care of it.”

_“No.”_ Yukiko says, far sharper than she intended. She flushes under their startled stares. “N-Not like that! Kirijo-san is very helpful and her guidance would be appreciated, of course! But she’s busy with wedding prep and her own missions and also…” Then Yukiko sighs. It’s moments like these when her makeup feels suffocating and the walls of the inn feel stifling and the joints in her fingers ache like nothing she’s ever felt before. 

Back in the TV world, when the world would explode with blood and it would be Yukiko’s trembling hands around her fan summoning her persona to bring breath back to their lips, her chest would hurt. It would burn, like her heart was being torn from beneath her ribs, like someone dug their nails between her breasts and pried her open to rob her blind. The others don’t really know this. Yosuke and Teddie do, to some extent, but Yosuke said it felt like a migraine and Teddie said it felt like when Yosuke doesn’t buy him popsicles and then they started fighting and the conversation kind of ended there. It’s not the emotional burden of watching her friends crumble, no, nothing metaphorical like that.

All of them. Konohana-Sakuya. Amaterasu. Sumeo-Okami. They’re all wreathed in fire and flames and they had all said, voices low like smouldering coals, that life is born in the heart of the sun. That you must plunge your hand into its depths and tear it from its wretched grasp in order to give it to those you love. That to heal is to ruin yourself, over and over and over. And Yukiko had lifted her head and burned herself alive and kept the dancing face of death away, day after day after day.

And it is that type of exhaustion that settles at the bottom of her throat. Like too cold fingers probing a burn just healing. Raw and relentless and rage induced and so damn _tired._ “We can’t get the Kirijo group involved now.” She says, and it rattles out her throat like a bullet from its chamber. “We have to know the truth first.”

There is silence, and then there is movement, and then Teddie is gently prying away her hand from the damp cloth. “Lie down.” He says. When did his voice get so gentle? “I’ll change the water. You’ll just take the night shift, okay?”

A younger Yukiko would’ve kicked and scowled and rolled her eyes. A younger Yukiko would’ve said something flippant and flimsy and forged ahead without remorse. A younger Yukiko would’ve had to be baited or distracted or simply just wrestled into submission.

Yukiko is not young. Yukiko’s knuckles ache from carving through the surface of the sun. Yukiko nods and lays in the warmth that Teddie left behind and drifts away to the rhythm of the sewing machine, steady like a train on the tracks.

『』

The night shift is lonely.

Nanako has been sent home. Teddie and Kanji have occupied the corner, curled into one another, snoring softly. Akechi’s breath is laboured and painful, but not loud. It’s too quiet, here, in The Room Under Renovation, like it always is. Yukiko doesn’t try to fill the space with noise of her own. Yu talks to himself with a running narration. Rise and Yosuke both sing, sometimes in harmony. Chie hems and haws like an old woman and shrieks with dismay when Yukiko makes fun of her for it.

Yukiko feels as though she is already occupying more space than she deserves. The silence is an ocean. There’s no pool in Inaba, so her father taught her swimming by chucking her head first into a deeper part of the Samegawa and laughing at her shock. When she first swam in a pool, she had been scared by its stillness. The Samegawa bubbles and babbles and rushes around your legs, enticing you to run alongside it and drown in its delight. A swimming pool sits in silence, almost solid in its stillness. When Yukiko tried to tread in its water, she moved her legs as gently as possible. There might be a beast in its depths, after all. Who knows what would happen to her if she disturbed it.

Her fingers are deft and careful as she rolls down the covers that have been pulled all the way up to Akechi’s chin. Sweat beads his bare chest, catching in the dips of his collarbones and the edges of his scars. Yukiko gently pulls the yukata open, and turns to wet the washcloth in the cold water once more. The moon is reflected in its surface, but rolls away into a blur as her hands make ripples. She wrings out the fabric. The droplets almost seem to echo.

When she turns around, her gasp is loud enough to reduce the inn to rubble.

Akechi’s gaze seems to glow in the moonlight. Red eyes not quite open all the way, but not glassy with fever like she expected. Her hands are too cold from the water to properly take a temperature. There’s a thermometer by her side, just far enough to make her stretch, but Yukiko holds her breath as Akechi turns his head to look at her properly.

“Y...ou…” He croaks. His voice sounds like it’s been shattered. He tries to swallow his spit and winces, drooling on the pillow. Yukiko chases it with the cloth, gently, and his eyes close again.

“Try not to speak.” Yukiko says. Her mind feels like it’s moving faster than her body. Would the congee be okay to warm up now? It’s still on the stove where Nanako left it. His voice, was that disuse or sickness or the result of the scars that wrap around his neck like a collar? She shouldn’t say his name, she would only upset him, and if he were to fly into a rage in his current state he might just end up—

“...me—” he manages, and his body rattles as he coughs and groans and drools again. There’s a glassiness coming back into his eyes. “Ki...ill—”

Yukiko sees red.

 _“Mister Akechi Goro.”_ She says, far too loud, breaking the rule she set for herself just moments ago. She barely notices, because all Akechi does is widen his eyes and tense under the blankets. “Under no circumstances will I be killing you, or harming you in any way. To suggest that I do so is absurd and insulting and I am absolutely appalled that you would ever entertain such a notion.”

Her hands are a blur, wiping down his chest and then wetting the towel and catching the sweat that runs down his chin. “You will banish such an obscene thought from your mind and stop talking this instant. You will close your eyes and rest and allow me and my companions to take care of you and your needs until you recover. You will _not_ give me any kind of back talk, you will _not_ attempt to move an inch, all you will do is lie in this futon and have every whim and fancy of yours attended to in a timely fashion, and only once you have fully recovered can you begin thinking about dying once again.” Yukiko pauses, and then adds for good measure. “And I would be very upset if you did so.”

Akechi blinks. He looks fragile and young and entirely eighteen. “W...hy…” He says.

Brains splattered against stone. Pulsing lights over a paralysed body. Spitting blood and fire and fury as she drags God down to earth and drags her friends to her feet.

“Because I have never failed a patient before and I refuse to let you be the first.” She says, sharp and stern, and by the time she’s gotten the thermostat and turned back to face him, he’s fallen asleep again.

Yukiko’s wrists ache. Her fingertips are cracked and bleeding. Her hands tremble by her sides. She plunges them in the cold water and hopes that they numb completely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chat names!!  
> ephemeral bowlcut: yu  
> disaster twunk: yosuke  
> thunder thighs: chie  
> murder lesbian: yukiko  
> spiky softie: kanji  
> Cog of the Capitalist Machine: teddie  
> 64th Most Beautiful Face In The World 2019: rise  
> no gender just gun: naoto
> 
> chapter notes (feel free to skip, it's v long) :
> 
> \- healer party members have always fascinated me, especially in a series like persona where each party member is built around a specific element. yukiko's affinity as fire, her red colour scheme, her sun goddess persona -- all of these things really throw her healer status into a completely different light. yukiko has always been challenging to read for me, and this is my first shot at writing her, so I Really hope that I got her correctly!!!
> 
> \- canticle's ["a storm is coming in"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13491372/chapters/30938649) inspired the format for the the group chat, and unsungillumation's ["into the sea"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12323832/chapters/28019259) is an insanely good akechi-centric fic which I discovered after I started greyhounds which has helped me understand akechi a lot more, highly recommend both!!
> 
> \- nanako!! my precious darling, I like to imagine her as a trucy wright kind of personality as well as being a mishmash of the entire p4 gang seeing as theyve been in her life for so long and she admires them so much. I also headcanon that dojima becomes a big old softie following p4, especially as he and nanako get closer and eventually he starts dating again, but the biggest change happens when yosuke and yu start dating and he realizes that he's yu's father figure love him to death. 
> 
> \- their group chat is a MESS and there was no way im typing out yosuke and naoto's quirks lmao also because they have touchscreens now, neither of them need to make such horrific abbreviations also rise 100% named the group chat because she thinks she's funny
> 
> \- i'm absolutely blown away by all the support that this fic has already gotten!! i've been having a blast writing greyhounds and im so happy that other people are having fun reading it !!! thank you so much for all the love u've given so far!! i'm trying to update once a month, but I have a ton of online classes, and these take a bit to churn out, so please have patience! I have a lot of future things written though, so this is here to stay!!
> 
> tysm!!! <3

**Author's Note:**

> ((i read and love all of your comments!! but i don’t know how to respond to most of them beyond just a ‘tysm!!’ so pls assume ur comment made me keel over with happiness even if i don’t respond))
> 
> [my twitter ](https://twitter.com/KAMONORITOSHI)


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